Respect the office, not necessarily the man

By: David Coughlin

The President of the United States is elected as America’s leader and represents the nation to other countries abroad. The specific roles and responsibilities of the President are clearly laid out in Article II of the U.S. Constitution. The office of President has a great deal of legitimate power and associated respect. Respect is a deference to a right, privilege, privileged position, or someone or something considered to have certain rights or privileges; proper acceptance or courtesy. The incumbent can be judged separately and critically based on their individual performance against the expectations of the office. Barack Hussein Obama can no longer hide behind the office of the President to demand deference and respect, because his personal performance is so abysmal and so contrary to the high expectations of that office that he no longer earns the respect of a sitting President, but rather that of a partisan political operative undermining the strength and good name of the office.

Barack Hussein Obama is not MY President since he represents nothing I value as a President. He remains an enigma with nothing definitively known about his birth, his alleged father, his early education, or his early mentors other than they are a succession of left wing, anti-American extremists dissatisfied with this country and its policies. Affirmative action was his saving grace enabling his entrance into a prestigious high school followed by an expensive mainland college with no academic achievement or financial support and then transferring to an Ivy League university, again unsupported by any academic achievement or financial support. After graduating with an unremarkable record, he then moved to Chicago to be indoctrinated in the Chicago strong arm politics and Saul Alinsky community agitation. Next another shadowy supporter helped him gain admission in the Harvard Law School where he graduates after accepting another affirmative action selection as an invisible editor of the Law School Review. His whole early life has been stage managed by others who ensured he attended all the right schools, was exposed to radical leaders, and worked on class warfare assignments.

Barack Hussein Obama has been marketed as a “Teflon” President, never held accountable for the results of his action, and taking credit for all successes and shifting blame for all failures to opponents or subordinates. His early years were marked by short stays in elected office where, after each election, his first act was to begin his campaign for his next office. As President, this is the first time in his career that he is on office long enough to be held accountable for his campaign promises and their actual results and he is suffering from that comparison. He loves to blame his predecessor for his record, but refuses to accept responsibility for anything his administration has done, since he repeatedly over-promises and under-delivers results. Another trick he employs is redefining the metrics used to measure results, such as inflation rate, cost of living index, and unemployment rate, to obscure references to the past and make comparisons harder. Obama’s whole modus operandi is to distract the voting public from issues that matter, such as the economy or terrorism, to issues that he can manufacture some media-driven crisis to scare the public into some symbolic action.

Barack Hussein Obama does not deserve the respect due the office of the President. He is an empty suit man who can’t speak without a tele-prompter. His Presidency is marked by constant drama, distortions, and exaggerations, which is just now waking up the mainstream media and the low information voters. He has embarked on his promised transformation from capitalism to socialism on the path to communism, just as he was taught by his leftist mentors. He has made the economy worse; people’s jobs and wealth have been destroyed; and our nation’s global reputation has been destroyed. It is time to give this President the respect he deserves and treat him with ridicule, using Saul Alinsky’s fifth rule of power tactics against him. Even late night comedians are finally beginning to find his actions humorous. The office of the President deserves respect, but the current incumbent has not earned any respect on his own based on his words, his actions, and most importantly his results. We have to put up with him for the rest of his last term, but we don’t have to give him the respect that he THINKS he deserves.

About The Author David Coughlin:David Coughlin is a political pundit, editor of the policy action planning web site “Return to Common Sense,” and an active member of the White Plains Tea Party. He retired from IBM after a short career in the U.S. Army. He currently resides with his wife of 40 years in Hawthorne, NY. He was educated at West Point (Bachelor of Science, 1971) and the University of Alabama in Huntsville (Masters, Administrative Science, 1976).